A Birmingham University spokesman has condemned the actions of Defend Education Birmingham, the group who carried out yesterday's protest:

The actions of Defend Education Birmingham - a group not affiliated to the Guild of Students or in any way representative of our student body - included defacing buildings and property, throwing smoke bombs and fireworks, smashing down doors, damaging buildings including Aston Webb and the Old Joe clock tower, as well as injuring staff.

She went on to say the University had 'no choice' but to call in Police support, after buildings and property was defaced by protestors yesterday:

Given the serious nature of their actions, the University had no choice but to ask the police for assistance in restoring order and protecting students, staff and university property... Whilst peaceful protest is part of university life, the University cannot tolerate behaviour that causes harm to individuals, damage to property or significant disruption to our university community.

Following the arrests of 13 people after a protest at Birmingham University yesterday, Police Superintendent Lee Kendrick has said:

This may well have been billed as a peaceful protest, but it escalated into a serious public order incident - a criminal investigation has been launched and anyone found to have acted unlawfully will be punished.

Following accusations on social media since the event, Superintendent Kendrick went on to deny that Police were 'kettling' demonstrators, saying:

We strongly refute any suggestions of containing or ‘kettling’ a lawful protest. Police were called to the site by the university as a result of demonstrators breaking into buildings, damaging property and assaulting staff. The suspects were detained by police and required to give their details ahead of the pending criminal investigation - any that refused were arrested.